IV. 1657. BOOK the church of Rome, the doctrine of transubstantiation, and the worship of images. The constables and churchwardens of every parish were also required to make similar presentments. Every person refusing this oath, was to be judged a recusant convict, and to forfeit two thirds of his property to the use of the state ¶. Copied from a The oath of abjuration in this statute was coformer act. pied with small variation from an ordinance passed in August 1643'. But the circumstances of the case were widely different. That law was made in the hottest and most critical period of the civil war. It was notorious that the king looked with sanguine expectation to the support of the Catholics, and sought to obtain from Ireland reinforcements to his armies from that class of his subjects. The ordinance of 1643 was for the sequestration of the estates of delinquents, and for supplying funds for carrying on the war in defence of liberty. For this purpose two thirds of the estates of Catholics were seized as a tem porary resource, without determining any thing absolutely as to the condition in which they should be placed on the return of peace. But the present law had a character of permanence, and was established in a period of as much tranquillity, as under the circumstances of the nation could be expected. Scobel, 1656, cap. 16. Ibid, 1643, cap. 15. XXV. 1657. Iniquity of sure. This statute was essentially of the most iniqui- CHAP. tous character. To call upon a man to be his own accuser is contrary to the plainest principles of equity. To put him to his purgation, to re- this meaquire him to abjure certain tenets, because he is suspected to entertain them, and to hold out to him a temptation to perjure himself in matters which he regards as of everlasting importance, is to strike at the root of his morals, and to do every thing in the power of the legislature to render him abandoned and profligate. You either inspire him with the feelings of a recreant, contemptible in his own eyes and those of others, or with those of a martyr, who, being punished for his integrity, has the strongest of all motives for inexpiable hostility to his punisher.-How this bill originated we are not told. It went through the first and second reading early in the session. The third reading did not take place till the eighteenth of June. It was probably a boon conferred on the presbyterians. At the same time it must be granted that the independents, earnestly attached as they were to the cause of religious liberty, too much participated in the sentiments of their rivals, so far as related to popery and prelacy. The session of parliament now drawing towards Act of ada close, a bill was prepared, and passed through journment. IV. BOOK all the forms on the twenty-sixth of June, for adjourning the sittings of that assembly to the January following; and this bill with twenty-two others immediately received the protector's as 1657. Petition and Addi sent". The petition and advice finally received the and Advice, assent of the proctector on the twenty-fifth of tional Peti- May; and the additional petition and advice, along with the other bills which were presented on the last day of the session. tion and Advice assented to. Close of the session. The same day as that of the adjourning of parliament, Cromwel was inaugurated, and took the oath to the new government in Westminster Hall. It was no doubt a great step for him, that he was now formally recognized by a parliament, an assembly the members of which were chosen by the people, and who in that capacity made laws for the government of the nation. The settlement was imperfect indeed, inasmuch as it was not made by a free parliament, but by a representative that had been arbitrarily deprived of the aid of many of those who had been lawfully elected to sit in it. Such as it was however, it was an assembly that had held Cromwel at bay, and entered into terms with him. They obliged him to contract that the ancient liberties and privileges of parliament should be preserved, and that he would neither interrupt them, nor suffer "Journals. Scobel, 1656, cap. 33 XXV. 1657. them to be interrupted; and particularly, that CHAP those persons who were chosen by a free election of the people, should not be excluded, but by the judgment and consent of the house of which they were members*:-and that no law should be altered and suspended, and no new law made but by the authority of the people assembled in parliament'. mencement system of ment. An occasion of this sort therefore, an occasion Com on which something having the appearance of a of a legal legal government was restored to this nation, after governan interruption of at least four years, both Cromwel and the parliament thought ought to be celebrated with no ordinary solemnity".-It deserves to be remarked however, that, though legality is by no means to be despised, and is in reality necessary to every permanent and satisfactory settlement, it is not every thing. England was governed in a more generous spirit, with more virtue, regard for the public, and elastic and healthful tone of administration, and with infinitely more honour among all foreign powers, during this interruption, than under any of the princes of the house of Stuart. * Petition and Advice, art. 3. ▾ Ibid, art. 6. 410 CHAPTER XXVI. IV. 1657. Cromwel some of the CROMWEL UNDERTAKES TO GAIN OVER SOME OF CROMWEL'S INAUGURA TION. BREACH BETWEEN HIM AND LAMBERT. HE DIES. CROMWEL'S DAUGHTERS TO VISCOUNT FAU- BOOK THE project of Cromwel having been to restore the monarchy under another line of princes, he thought this a fit occasion to endeavour to conciundertakes liate to himself some of the ancient nobility. The to gain over first to whom he applied was the earl of Warwick, ancient no- who had been lord high admiral for the parliathe earl of ment in the civil war a. Under the reign of the independents he was finally dismissed from that situation in February 1649. There was something in the character of this nobleman particu bility. Warwick. a See above, Vol. I, p. 193: Vol. II, p. 532, 551. b Vol. III, p. 35. |